28 March 2011

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are developing a remake of Uptown Saturday Night, reports Variety.

A remake of the buddy comedy "Uptown Saturday Night" that's been in development at Warner Bros. for nearly a decade is getting a push forward. ... David Dobkin ("Wedding Crashers") is attached to direct and exec produce remake of the 1974 buddy comedy that starred Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier. Overbrook partners Will Smith, James Lassiter, Ken Stovitz and Jada Pinkett Smith will produce.

The film followed two estranged friends who have their wallets stolen at a nightclub. The next morning, they learn that one contained a winning lottery ticket, and together, they set out to find it. New pic will likely diverge from the original storyline, and is being eyed as a starring vehicle for two A-list leads such as Smith and Denzel Washington, two thesps Hollywood's rumor mill has long associated with the project.

My first instinct is that Uptown Saturday Night and Let's Do It Again are classics, so why mess with perfection? But with Denzel and Will Smith leading, it could have potential.

But last night was the first time in the history of the Tony Awards that black performers won best
actor and best actress in a play for the same theater season. Two time Oscar-winner Denzel Washington and Viola Davis triumphed for Fences, the 1987 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner by August Wilson.

"Washington took the prize for his performance as Troy, a one-time
baseball star turned sanitation worker who struggles to reconcile his
past and present. Critics drew favorable comparisons with James Earl
Jones, who originated this role for which he won the second of his two
Tonys. Oscar nominee Viola Davis ("Doubt") won the lead actress award
for her work as the long-suffering wife Rose. That part won Mary Alice
the featured actress Tony for the original production but producers
petitioned to boost Davis to the lead race."